[TR] Oregon road trip: Mt Washington & Broken Top- North Ridge (wash); South Face Gully (BT) 9/23/2004

[Chriznitch]

Climb: Oregon road trip: Mt Washington (north ridge) & Broken Top (South Face Gully)

 

Date of Climb: 9/23-25/2004

 

Trip Report:

 

To prepare for another term of grad school, my buddy Nate and I took advantage of an excellent weather window to climb some Oregon rock. We started off with the North Ridge of Mt Washington--a peak of negative fame this year. This was cold and wet from recent snows. Basically a scramble, we climbed unroped and brought a light 60m rope for one rap on the descent. We saw 2 other solo climbers up there.

 

 

 

I knocked a substantial foot hold off on the crux move (exposed, easy 5th) of the climb, luckily avoiding Nate below. The moisture made this route more interesting and slippery than usual. There is a 2-month old register at the top that is already halfway full. People have scribbled and wasted space like it's an elusive summit. At the base of the "nose" we traversed around to peek at the west face. The only route on this side that interested me was the west ridge.

 

 

On day 2 we worked on rock skills at Smith Rock, climbing various cracks on Spiderman Buttress before ending the day climbing the actual "Spiderman", a fun climb that can be done in one long pitch with a 60m rope and long runners. We broke it into 2 pitches...

Day 3 we climbed the South Face gully route on BT, by far the most serious route of the trip. Although technically easy (low 5th class), this route crosses over the sketch rock of BT's crater rim. Looking from the south:

 

 

Expect incredible views down the insane northeast face of the mountain and down the more moderate east face to the Bend glacier:

 

 

There are also great views of the impressive east face of the west peak--any takers? Kinda looks like something in Canada, but more scheisty:

 

 

 

Accessed from the BT trailhead, this route took 7 hours round trip. We moved pretty slow along the rim, and could see people on the summit for quite a while before we finally topped out.

 

 

The views of the Sisters can't be beat:

 

 

At one point we actually crossed over a window (hole/arch) in the ridge! The descent was uneventful involving a downclimb of the step on the NW ridge route.

 

 

We jogged down the scree of the nw face, and hiked 1/2 way around the peak to the car and some warm PBRs. We passed some dude running from the TH down to the highway in hiking boots! Something was making him smile (?).

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

at least a 50m rope for Mt Wash rappel; small rack for the south face gully route (with slings); tennies

 

Approach Notes:

road to BT trailhead is in good shape

[ivan]

adventures in choss land!

[cluck]

How bad was the Broken Top route you described? Its hard to figure out on this damn site when something is horrifying but the hard man ethic leads posters to down play the climbing with stiff upper lip English gentleman terms like "spicy" or "interesting" to describe climbing that is a sphincter cliching, near death experience versus a climb that is somewhat tricky and merits caution but is reasonably doable by even those of us with families to consider. So what gives? Death voyage or not?

 

Thanks for sharing some choss beta.

[billcoe]

Cluck: I propose a "load" rating.

 

So a 1/4 load is when you just shit your pants a bit but held it together on the pitch, a 1/2 load is pretty serious: talking some brown stuff out the sides of the underpants, while contrasted to a "full load" wherein you may die if a rogue boulder decides to part company with the parent cliff while you take the big unprotectect ride down.

 

A "full load" would be characterised by at least a shoe full of crap and everything inbetween, and a complaining partner as well. BTW, you partner must, by definition be BELOW, not above safetly tied in above belaying you, for it to be a full load!

 

regards:

 

Bill

 

ps, I think I may be spying a 1/4 load right there on the rappel pic, wherein a single sling is wrapped aound what appears to be a group of loose rocks. Should said rocks show movement when weighted.....well.....we could safetly upgrade the "movement rating" as well right there on the spot.

 

Thanks Chriznitch !!

Edited September 29, 2004 by billcoe

[Hanger]

I think Eric was at 1/2 to a full load when leading the second section of coconut slurpee...complete with complaining partner...well hell, who wouldn't be complaining? My damned belay station was melting away underneath my boots!!

[Chriznitch]

I am still under the impression that this gets climbed somewhat frequently. However, there was a point where, basically, we began to dislike the route. We realized that backing off would SUCK--mostly for the descent back down the gully. Had there been snow it would have been different.

 

Sketch factor = intimacy with Oregon erosive geology

 

2 things cheered us up:

1.) roping up

2.) slight improvement in rock

 

Here's another view of the ridge/rim:

 

[ivan]

I think Eric was at 1/2 to a full load when leading the second section of coconut slurpee...complete with complaining partner...

nah, 2/5 load at max on the climb...it was too short to crap myself completly. the belay ontop, on the other hand, was more like 2/3 load.

[Chriznitch]

might as well release if it's already @ 2/3

[b-rock]

Cluck: I propose a "load" rating.

 

So a 1/4 load is when you just shit your pants a bit but held it together on the pitch, a 1/2 load is pretty serious: talking some brown stuff out the sides of the underpants, while contrasted to a "full load" wherein you may die if a rogue boulder decides to part company with the parent cliff while you take the big unprotectect ride down.

 

A "full load" would be characterised by at least a shoe full of crap and everything inbetween, and a complaining partner as well. BTW, you partner must, by definition be BELOW, not above safetly tied in above belaying you, for it to be a full load!

 

regards:

 

Bill

 

ps, I think I may be spying a 1/4 load right there on the rappel pic, wherein a single sling is wrapped aound what appears to be a group of loose rocks. Should said rocks show movement when weighted.....well.....we could safetly upgrade the "movement rating" as well right there on the spot.

 

Thanks Chriznitch !!

 

[ivan]

might as well release if it's already @ 2/3

not true! if sitting (i was at the belay) you can just wiggle yer ass cheeks a bunch and do some tantric chants and its just crawls right on back up

 

kinda tickles though

[Gaper_Jeffy]

Neat TR!

 

before ending the day climbing the actual "Spiderman", a fun climb that can be done in one long pitch with a 60m rope and long runners.

 

Really? I've always combined the first two pitches but I didn't know you could combine all 3 . . . That's interesting to know, thanks for the info!

[rbw1966]

Spiderman has three pitches now?

[ivan]

dude, haven't you been following all this cali earthquake and st. helens eruption shite? plate tectonics, goddammit...spiderman's been unlifted a full 40 meters! this will defeat the gang of folks i once saw toproping all of spidey by tying 2 60s together...

[Chriznitch]

Spiderman has three pitches now?

 

I suppose it could. There's a couple belay anchors at the top of the slab that can break up the first pitch

[rbw1966]

Yeah, but that would be ridiculous.

[b-rock]

I think the belay anchors are there to help facilitate the cluster-f*ck that ensues as climbers lead up the normal route, the variation, and the retro-bolted slab all while some party tries to rap off.